Sergey Botkin

Sergey Petrovich Botkin (1832 to 1889) was a Russian clinician, therapist and activist, counted among the founders of modern Russian medical science and education. Born in Moscow into a family of well known tea traders, he took his medical degree at Moscow State University in 1855 and was sent as a military surgeon to Sevastopol during the Crimean War, working under Nikolay Pirogov. After study abroad he took a chair at the Academy of Medicine and Surgery at the age of 29 and in 1860 and 1861 opened a clinical and research laboratory that began systematic work in clinical pharmacology and experimental therapy. He introduced triage, pathological anatomy and post mortem diagnostics into Russian practice and was the first to suggest that catarrhal jaundice, now called hepatitis, was caused by an infection. He served as court physician to Tsars and in 1886 headed a national public health commission; Botkin Hospital is named after him.